"That's it. I hate this place, I'm not coming back I swear to god." He thinks to himself as the constant flow of orders and tickets continue with no sign of letting up. Arthur's only one person after all and his friends, no his coworkers don't seem to grasp that notion. With every other cook either having quit or doing god knows what he's on his own on the hot line. But what is making it worse was the fact that the servers won't stop complaining about how long it's taking him to make their orders.
Especially that certain loud mouth server that keeps coming back to him every fifteen minutes, "Yo, Art you got my order?" Alfred asks as he leans dangerously close to Arthur's hot line.
While he wants to scream he just bites his lip instead, "I have your order if you put it in." He says with a sharp glare that tells Alfred to slowly back away, "And you did put it in right?"
"Uhh," Alfred starts as flips through his notebook as a younger server named Mei joins him on the serving line, "I think I did."
"You think or know?" He says going back to his food orders as three more print out on his small printer, "Oh bloody hell when do we close?"
Mei and Alfred exchange worried looks before Alfred speaks, "We closed like ten minutes ago."
Arthur's head shoots up instantly as a pot behind him boils over, "Than why am I still making food?" He quickly turns off his burner but it's too late to avoid a large mess of hot butter and cream, "Shit…" He says as another server joins them in the hot kitchen.
"Hey Arthur you have my three top?" Matthias starts to say as Alfred pushes him out of the kitchen while Arthur's back is still turned towards the mess, "What? They're pissed."
"I get it." Alfred starts looking back at the shorter blonde man, "But let's give him a second, he's trying man."
What Matthias says next Arthur doesn't hear as he keeps his head down as he continues to push out order after order though he still can't fathom why he hasn't just walked out already.
Finally after what feels like hours he lets out a sigh, "Finally." He doesn't dare look at the clock as he starts to switch off his stove and grill. He has a long night ahead of him and he'd rather just ignore the time.
But just as he takes out his broom and mob bucket his ticket machine buzzes to life again, "No." He says simply as he pulls the ticket down to see its owner is none other than a certain loud server.
"Don't worry." It reads in black ink.
With another sigh he just sticks it to his board, "Idiot. It's do not make not don't worry." But as he goes for his broom again another ticket prints out.
This one from Mei, "We all love you."
"What?" He starts as again it spring to life.
"Sorry we don't always show it." Matthew's says as a small smile appears on Arthur's face as he sticks them in order across his board.
"So have a good night." Matthias' is followed by a smiley face that makes Arthur chuckle.
"Wankers all of them." He says to himself as he finishes cleaning up before gathering up all of the tickets, neatly folding them and placing them in his pocket. "But they are a good lot." Slowly he pokes his head out the kitchen door to see Alfred wiping down a table, "Good night Alfred."
"Night Art…I'll see you tomorrow right?"
Arthur nods, "Yeah I'll be here." As he walks out into the night air he looks up at the stars, "Tonight wasn't so bad after all…"
A/N: A three top is a table of three people. A serving line is where servers pick up food and a hot or front line is where cooks make food. Most servers are not allowed on a hot line, period.